One of the members of the hacker group Evil Corp, the disclosure of which was recently announced by the US and British authorities, turned out to be the son of the former mayor of Khimki Vladimir Strelchenko, Andrei Kovalsky, the publication Meduza found out. The Evil Corp group, according to US and UK law enforcement agencies, is "the worst in the world." According to them, over ten years of existence, the group stole hundreds of millions of dollars from bank cards and citizens' accounts. Investigators claim that hackers work from Moscow cafes and are led by 32-year-old Muscovite Maxim Yakubets, who drives around the city on a luxury Lamborghini with the word thief on the number plate. Yakubets' father-in-law is Eduard Bendersky, a former special forces officer of the FSB Vympel, the head of the eponymous association of private security companies and a charitable foundation. Rucriminal.info conducted its own investigation of Bendersky's activities. In the first publication, we talked about the years of Bendersky’s service, his connections with criminal “authorities” and the establishment of business for the leadership of the Special Forces Center of the FSB of the Russian Federation. The editors also found out that Bendersky was extremely close with the ex-governor of the Tver region Dmitry Zelenyen. In particular, Bendersky and Zelenin together participated in the “war” for “Dongazvydobuvannya”.
In the second part of the investigation, we will describe how Bendersky is associated with one of the kings of the shadow financial market, Sergei Magidov. And also about how Bendersky sent governors to hell, stating that he was solving his problems at the level of presidential envoys in the federal districts.
About the conflict around Donbagzdobycha, with the participation of Bendersky and Zelenin, the magazine “Men's Work” wrote at one time, after which its editor Samodurov was forced to file an application with law enforcement agencies due to incoming threats. Here is an excerpt from the statement:
“In particular, through the head of Resource Center FC S. Milovanov, words and reactions to the investigation of other persons involved in the case, V. Glukhovtsev and E. Bendersky, were transmitted to me. From these words it is clear that V. Glukhovtsev, E. Bendersky, as well as certain high officials who patronize them, including law enforcement agencies and special services, are extremely not interested in publicizing the facts that became known during the journalistic investigation and intend to actively to act in order to neutralize the journalists involved in the investigation of this case.
Moreover, I was explicitly told that the facts already published by me can be a sufficient basis for the most unpredictable consequences for me.
In one of the last conversations, S. Milovanov, who described E. Bendersky as an inadequate and uncontrollable person, pointed out to me that I “did something stupid by deciding to raise the topic of E. Bendersky’s participation in the Dongazvydobuvannya case, and also said that he doesn’t want to imagine how this could end for me. ”
As Rucriminal.info found out, in the 2000s Vympel A and Bendersky often became actors in operations involving the seizure of enterprises. At the same time, Bendersky combined both the power part of the operation (the entry of PSC fighters at the enterprise, etc.) and the “Reshalovo” in the law enforcement unit. In particular, Vympel A and Bendersky were participants in the seizures of enterprises, including Mostransagentsstva (MTA, the wife and daughter were kidnapped from the enemy of Rosbuilding), where Rosbuilding was an interested person - at that time one of the largest raider structures. Vympel A was spotlighted in 2013 during a joint-stock conflict at ToGAZ.
In 2010-2011, Bendersky was a participant in the joint war for Yamaltransstroy (a major contractor for Gazprom) and was a member of the board of directors of the holding.
It is clear that during all these events he acquired new influential and wealthy acquaintances, especially since Bendersky was associated with most of his hobbies. Edward is an avid hunter. Along the way, Bendersky also mastered new areas of profitable activity, in particular the organization and “protection” of obnalny channels. He developed the latter direction with his closest friend and VIP hunting partner Sergey Magidov. This is a fairly large player in the market of cash out, conversion and other shadow banking operations. Magidov is a longtime partner of one of the largest semi-underground banking tycoons Anatoly Motylev. Previously, Magidov owned AMB Bank, which he sold to Motylev. Together Magidov and Motylev owned NPF Sberfond Sunny Beach (the fund was liquidated). There was a single “consortium of investors, which included Anatoly Motylev and Sergey Magidov.
According to Rucriminal.info, in 2017, Bendersky, Magidov, together with the former top manager of AFK Sistema (headed by Stream) Konstantin Zakharov, launched three paid television channels - Wild, Wild Hunt and Wild Fishing.
Bendersky and Magidov registered their participation in the project as wives, the first for Zhanna, the second for Tatyana.
From 2006 to 2013 Bendersky headed the Russian Association of Public Associations of Hunters and Fishers (Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz). All his tenure was accompanied by scandals. Ordinary hunters accused him of not doing anything for them, but only lobbying for the interests of VIP hunters and the hunting farms serving them. Bendersky launched a vigorous activity, in particular, signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia, in upholding the interests of the above-mentioned people, and met with the governors. And even arranged a “showdown” with the governor of the Pskov region Mikhail Kuznetsov. The dispute arose because of an agreement on the gratuitous provision for a period of 25 years of 2.5 million hectares of hunting land to the Pskov branch of the Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz. Bendersky initially announced that he would meet with Kuznetsov on this issue. Then he defiantly announced that he did not see the point in this meeting and would solve all issues with the plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District (NWFD) Ilya Klebanov.
In 2016-17, a huge scandal broke out around Bendersky’s hunting activity. Then the Bendersky “Mountain Hunters Club” wrote a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government Alexander Khloponin, in which he asked to give his organization the right to shoot five Putoran sheep (later the number increased to six) included in the Red Book. In exchange, the club pledged to pay the reserve, in whose territory this will be done, 15 million rubles (later it came to 30 million). Khloponin instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources to develop an appropriate “pilot cooperation project”.
The population of these sheep does not exceed 800 individuals, so it is listed in the Red Book. Females of the Putorana ram give birth to one lamb in three years, and the survival rate of lambs is only 23%.
The unofficial explanation for such a letter was very clear: to VIP hunters who killed all the animals they could, the horns of this ram (they had not been hunted for 30 years before) with the most important trophy, the richest people want it.
Information has become the property of journalists, a big scandal erupted.
To be continued
Timofey Grishin
